Shillong Aug 8: Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma said that poor connectivity has been the real challenge to Meghalaya.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the 22nd National Conference on e-Governance at the State Convention Centre on Thursday, the Chief Minister urged the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions etc, Dr. Jitendra Singh to look into the matter especially when most areas in Meghalaya did not have mobile towers including areas along the international borders.

The two-day conference is the first National Conference on e-Governance being organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), in association with Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology (MeitY) and Meghalaya government in the North East.

Stressing on the importance of data driven governance and its importance at the grass root level, Conrad cited some success stories of the state on how technology was used to provide efficient services while improving the quality of life of citizens.

He cited an example of South Garo Hills which had high Maternal Mortality Rate, but with the introduction of an innovative GPS based system to track pregnant mothers, institutional delivery increased and within six months, the mortality rate came down drastically.

“This was a perfect example of how technology can be used without additional funds for the benefit of the people. It is all a question of will power and motivation,” he said.

The Chief Minister also highlighted other initiatives of the state such as the1917 i-Teams that is helping to connect farmers to the buyers while also providing transport as well as consultancy services.

He also mentioned the need to think of innovative ways to also make villages smart in terms of education, health, entrepreneurship, not only making cities smart.

Dr. Jitendra Singh congratulated the Meghalaya government and the Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (ARPG) Department for organising the conference in such a huge attendance of 535 delegates from 28 States and all Union Territories.

Admitting that the North East has not received the focus that it deserves in the past, Singh said that the Centre has been trying to take e-governance to the remotest part of the North East and lauded the ARPG department for developing a human friendly approach while citing the example of the pensioners Praman Patra.

The Union Minister also said that citizen friendly governance is the vision of the present government and appreciated Meghalaya for being the only state in India to have a Water policy in place.

He also mentioned that India should be brought closer to the North East as there is so much to learn from the region.

Singh advised that the conference should formulate a ‘Shillong Declaration’ outlining the roadmap for e-Governance in India.

Meghalaya Information and Technology Minister, Hamletson Dohling also spoke at the conference.

The conference will go a long way in developing the capacity of State Governments, provide a technology facilitation mechanism, enabled ranking, mapping and measuring e-Governance Services and fulfil the vision of major secretariat reforms in Central and State Secretariat.